When my oldest daughter turned three, she defined the “Trying Threes.” Every day we fought from the moment she woke until she would finally fall asleep. Nothing I tried seemed to work with her. I clearly wasn’t doing something right and honestly questioned if she would be better off without me in her life.
A friend turned me on to Love and Logic because it worked for her and her husband. I ran to my local library and was delighted to find a copy of Parenting with Love and Logic. I checked it out and read it that weekend. I was intrigued with the parenting techniques and excited to get started. Over the next few months, I practiced the skills. I started to see changes in my relationship with my Daughter; we were listening to each other and were better able to communicate our needs with each other. Love and Logic was working for us.
We now have had another Daughter and she is about to turn four. I find myself back in the same position. I have reverted back to my old ways of drill sergeant parenting. I am overwhelmed and frustrated every day with their feelings of entitlement, sibling squabbles and not being accountable for their actions. Time for a Love and Logic refreshment. This time, I also need to learn new techniques that would help me parent two children and work through sibling issues.
For my review, Love and Logic sent me three books- Stand in My Shoes, Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood and From Innocence to Entitlement.
Stand in My Shoes is a wonderful children’s book. My oldest and I have read this book a few times. She has asked me questions about the subject matter (empathy) and seems to be giving it a lot of thought. I have been saying for three years, that I WISHED Love and Logic had children’s books so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered Stand in My Shoes. I hope Love and Logic releases more books that are geared toward children.
Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood teaches the parent how to navigate through the first six years of a child’s life. In this book you will find help with potty training, daycare, back-talk, whining (my favorite) and many more toddler/preschooler challenges. I think this is a great book for new parents. It really gives you practical tools to help build responsibility early on.
From Innocence to Entitlement discusses the devastation that feelings of entitlement can cause. This book teaches skills on the true meaning of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; service providers vs. parents; removing “it’s not fair” and “but I want it” from your child’s vocabulary, and how to say “no” effectively. I haven’t read this book as fast as I have the other books; I think because this one “hit the nail on the head”. I think the root of many of our current issues is the result of feeling entitled…the girls and myself. There are a lot of lessons for me to learn in this book. I will be studying it carefully.
It has only been about three weeks since I started practicing my Love and Logic parenting again. I can already see changes in the way I handle “heated” situations. These techniques help reduce my stress and remind me of what’s important. I know it’s just a matter of time until I see the girls change their behavior too. I know the more choices and responsibilities I give them, the better they will feel about themselves. They will learn to think for themselves while the risks are low.
The Love and Logic website is a wonderful resource for parents. They have a lot of information and tips on how to work through a variety of situations. They are also on facebook and twitter.
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Hello, my name is Laurie. My family and I live near the Oregon coast. When we aren’t at work, in school, or on the volleyball court, we enjoy traveling, cheering for our favorite sports teams, playing outdoors, and checking off items on our bucket list. We are lucky in that both sets of our parents, as well as our siblings and their families, live within an hour of us. We get together often to help one another out, celebrate milestones, and go on adventures together.
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